Friday, February 17, 2012

New Comet: P/2012 C3 (PANSTARRS)

Cbet nr. 3021, issued on 2012, February 16, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 21.6) by Larry Denneau and Richard Wainscoat in four exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala on February 15.3. The new comet has been designated P/2012 C3 (PANSTARRS).

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of ten R-filtered exposures, 60-sec each, obtained remotely, from the Siding Spring-Faulkes Telescope South on 2012, Feb. 16.6, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD, shows that this object is a comet: faint fan-shaped tail, nearly 6-arcsec long in PA 284.

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Comets & Asteroids news

Welcome to our Astronomy blog, devoted in particular to Comets & Neo and related topics. This blog is maintained by the Team of observers of Remanzacco Observatory in Italy, particularly active in the study of the small bodies of the Solar System.